What We Read When We Want To Read For Fun: A Top Ten List

And by we, I mean me.

And I don’t read Raymond Carver when I’m looking for a fluffy read, but I really do love What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.

This week’s top ten list: top ten books when you need something light and fun (as hosted by the broke and the bookish). I am not a fluffy reader by nature. Actually, I’m not even a light and fun person by nature. I think my love for all things dark and macabre inhibits that amount of literary fluff I can process. However, that does not mean I do not read for fun. I do, but it tends to be a bit left of center.

In no particular order (and I’ll pretend not to feel embarrassed admitting I read the Southern Vampire Mystery series):

10. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I like reading about intelligent women in academia. If they happen to find their soul mate with a yoga-loving vampire, all the better. Added bonus: Harkness is an all around very interesting person. I’ve come across her non-fiction for professional purposes and she’s enjoyable whether writing about vampire romance or Elizabethan gardens.

9. Experiment in Terror series by Karina Halle. This series is about a short, dark haired, blue eyed girl. I can’t imagine the appeal – I cannot relate to Perry at all. Plus she hunts ghosts with her sexy partner and Halle frequently uses songs titles as chapter titles, I appreciate that. And (I always have just one more thing), I’m about to head to Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver and these novels take place there. I also happen to love these week’s photo (about adventures in Oregon).

7. Austenland by Shannon Hale. I read this book because I have a girl crush on Keri Russell (she’s just so gorgeous and effortless) and she stars in Austenland. It’s about a Jane Austen theme park.

6. Heartburn by Nora Ephron. Okay, so I haven’t read this one yet, but I have it on good authority I am going to love it. I think every good book shelf needs at least one unread book that you are bound to fall in love with.

5. Naked by David Sedaris. After years of avoidance, I finally caved and read Naked (and now Me Talk Pretty One Day and Barrel Fever). It’s good fun. Next up to stop avoiding: Jonathan Tropper.

4. Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard. I actually quite enjoy Dante’e Divine Comedy. Gabriel’s Inferno mixes smutty romance with great Italian literature – it’s very intellectual for the genre. And good looking professors in bow ties and glasses never hurt a book’s appeal. As always, I use the term smutty with great affection.

3. Sookie Stackhouse series. Because True Blood… I can’t watch a series if I know it’s based on novels and then not read the novels. And although I enjoy it, I do think the series is abominably adapted. Fun, but abominable.

2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Because what’s better than a trilogy in five parts. Or six parts now I suppose, though I haven’t read And Another Thing…

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I wouldn’t recommend this one as light and fluffy if it is your first time reading it. But if you’ve already read it, why not fall in love with Edward Fairfax Rochester all over again. I do once or twice every couple of years.

There you have it, ten books I would turn to (or recommend for you) if looking for a book on the lighter side of things. So what do you read for fun?

Image from CCOOL found via Pinterest. It is a quarterly photography publication featuring young adventures. Check them out.